Humanity strains under civilization. Civilization is unnatural. We are at base animals. Civilization is our cage, the product of our Reason. Occasionally the animal in man breaks free from the cage, from reason.
It happened in France in 1789.
In Spain in 1936.
In China 1966.
Then there is frenzied violence, unreasoned violence. Then we are all Id, "we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. ...It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will..." (Freud) Ah, then it is not quite that we are all Id at these moments if the Id "produces no collective will." In each of the examples that I could think of that seemed similar there was collective will.
"Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups." (Nietzsche) That is what I have in mind. The term madness avoids "insanity," not knowing the difference between right and wrong. The revolutionaries in France, in Spain, in China knew that, seriatim, mass slaughter was wrong, disinterring the corpses of nuns and dancing with them was wrong, forcing children to denounce parents was wrong. They had their reasons! Therefore it was not unreasoned, therefore not insane behavior, it was "mad." They were reasoned collective revolts against the Super-Ego. And then the madness stops! And we revert to civilized beings. If one did not know of these events one could not detect it in modern day France or Spain or China.
Reasoning Man unchained from the Super-Ego was madly violent in those three instances. Is that who we are at base?, "solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish." (Hobbes) No. I think not. We reverted to submission to the Super-Ego after each. But one does not take from that that civilization is our natural state. One knows that these eruptions of madness are part of who man is also and that they will happen again.
It happened in France in 1789.
In Spain in 1936.
In China 1966.
Then there is frenzied violence, unreasoned violence. Then we are all Id, "we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. ...It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will..." (Freud) Ah, then it is not quite that we are all Id at these moments if the Id "produces no collective will." In each of the examples that I could think of that seemed similar there was collective will.
"Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups." (Nietzsche) That is what I have in mind. The term madness avoids "insanity," not knowing the difference between right and wrong. The revolutionaries in France, in Spain, in China knew that, seriatim, mass slaughter was wrong, disinterring the corpses of nuns and dancing with them was wrong, forcing children to denounce parents was wrong. They had their reasons! Therefore it was not unreasoned, therefore not insane behavior, it was "mad." They were reasoned collective revolts against the Super-Ego. And then the madness stops! And we revert to civilized beings. If one did not know of these events one could not detect it in modern day France or Spain or China.
Reasoning Man unchained from the Super-Ego was madly violent in those three instances. Is that who we are at base?, "solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish." (Hobbes) No. I think not. We reverted to submission to the Super-Ego after each. But one does not take from that that civilization is our natural state. One knows that these eruptions of madness are part of who man is also and that they will happen again.
